While a lot of brands tout themselves as sustainable, what does it really mean to be sustainable? And how can we build massive value in sustainability? On this 143rd episode of the E-Comm Show, Andrew Maff interviews Amy Auble, f co-founder of Jelt. Amy, in whatever endeavor she does, is always thinking sustainability first and shows others how to not only think sustainability but market it.

In this episode, Amy walks us through the importance of having sustainable products. A stance that can span beyond the greater good and directly impact your bottom line. This is an episode you don't want to miss if sustainability is one of your product's main value propositions.

Watch the full episode below, or visit TheEcommShow.com for more.

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Have an e-commerce marketing question you'd like Andrew to cover in an upcoming episode? Email: hello@theecommshow.com

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Adding Sustainability to Your Value Proposition with Alpine Start Media 

Andrew Maff and Amy Auble 

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST: AndrewMaff.com  |  Twitter: @AndrewMaff | LinkedIn: @AndrewMaff 

Amy Auble 

Amy Auble is a sustainably driven entrepreneur and the founder of Alpine Start Media, an agency built to manage social media and email marketing for sustainable brands. As the co-owner of Jelt, a line of products made from recycled plastic, Amy has hands-on experience and intelligence when it comes to growing and marketing purpose-driven, eco-conscious brands.

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So many times when I'm a marketer, I don't have full control over the photos, the videos, the content, the direction,,

01:01

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The E-Comm Show. I'm your host, Andrew Maff, and today I am joined by the amazing Amy Auble, who is the co founder of Jelt. Amy, how you doing? Ready for a good show?

01:13

I'm ready, ready to jump in. Yeah,

01:15

yes. I'm super excited about this. I love a I know this is like the business is based out of Montana, which I love, and then the sustainable side, which always a very interesting conversation. I've had a bunch of people on the podcast talk about it, and it is a crazy industry that can be very interesting. So very excited to have you on the show. I like to start out in the Super stereotypical way and just kind of let you kick it off. Tell us a little bit about your background, where you've been, and then we'll get into gelt and take it from

01:43

there. Lovely. Thanks so much, Andrew for having me on really the all the things that I do now tie back to sustainability. It's what I'm really passionate about. That kind of plays out in two different ways. One, I do marketing for sustainable brands, and the other, of course, is gel which you mentioned. And gelt makes belts from recycled plastic, specifically. And so really the I think the passion for sustainability started by just spending a lot of time outdoors and realizing that these areas need to be protected. And if I love spending so much time in them, it's hard not to feel like a greater tie to the earth. But then you also see how that plays out in the other things that that you're doing. So I started looking at my lifestyle habits, and were those sustainable? And then I love marketing, because I think it's a great opportunity to tell stories. It's what I went to school for. I worked for a tech company for a few years in marketing before starting my own agency. And I love the storytelling aspect, but I realized that I don't think we all necessarily need more stuff. And so how do I sell products that I am proud of, that I'm excited about, my favorite products that I think are sustainable, they just reduce single use items. So they're things you're going to buy anyways. But maybe you don't have to buy them every time. My favorite example is just a razor that I work with called Proof razors, and they are aluminum, and so essentially you'd never have to buy another plastic razor. You can have this one razor for the rest of your life. And so yeah, just started diving more into sustainability, and then about a year ago, had the opportunity to purchase jell from its original owner, alongside my brother, whose name is Andy, and it was a great opportunity to learn what it's like to be the owner of an E commerce business. And as anyone who's listening probably knows all the fun things that come along with that. And so gel is based in Bozeman, Montana, which is just a fun place to be. I myself am in Flagstaff, Arizona, but I was just in gel a few weeks or in Montana a few weeks ago. I'm there quite often. So the brand itself, like I said, the belts are made from recycled plastic. They're low profile, so they're really thin and stretchy. Some of them are like one size, so we have, like extra small to large, and they're like size to fit, so they're not adjustable. And then we have a line, two different lines, that are also adjustable as well. So you can, kind of like a one size fits most, and then can adjust it. And those are just really comfortable, and the brand is really centered around being outdoors, so they're great for hiking pants, ski pants, but I also, like, I'm wearing one today. I wear them at the at the office all the time too, and it's just a great mission behind the company to we are trying really hard to do everything as locally as we can. I think that's a huge part of sustainability. So that's those are the starting information about child Yes,

04:53

gotcha Nice. So obviously, you guys acquired the business a little over a year ago. What? What? What attracted you? To it, excluding the sustainability side, because belts are that can be a pretty difficult industry to get into. Yeah, there were a couple of things that were really attractive about gel. One was that I've learned how important it is no matter what you're selling, that the product has to be really, really good. It can't, especially if it's in the sustainability realm, you can't just count on consumers buying it, because it's sustainable. It has to be a really good option, too. And so I, after seeing the belts and testing them out and trying them, there's like, I, I actually really enjoy these belts. I think they're, they're a great product, um, it was also a good opportunity to, like, dip our fee and what it was like to own an E commerce business in this way. My brother had owned some owns two other e commerce businesses, and this was one that he could advise on and I could run, and that was just like an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. And then we also had some like exciting ideas about where we could take the future of the business. We're coming out with a new product in July, which is really exciting. And so when we saw the business that that had a foundation of sustainability and sustainable belts, we also thought about, what other products could we make using these processes that would be sustainable and and the owner, the original owner, Jen, had just done a really good job of building brand reputability. We've been featured in tons of outdoor magazines. It's a really well known name in Bozeman, and so it had a really great foundation to start things off nice. So the the interesting side of this also being that your background in the marketing area. So what is it about gelt that made you feel like, oh, I can, I can just run wild with this thing. I think it was the at that time, over a little over a year ago, I really wanted to do marketing for sustainable brands, and I was working with some sustainable brands, but they weren't all in the sustainable realm. And I knew, if I really wanted to, like, cater to a sustainable business owner, what better way to do that, to be than to be a sustainable business owner myself? And so on one hand, it was a great learning opportunity, and has been, but on the other hand, I think it's so many times when I'm a marketer, I don't have full control over the photos, the videos, the content, the direction, but I felt like if I had control over the strategy of things and had a great foundation for the brand, I felt like I could do what was needed to continue To sell gel belts. Well, yeah, nice. So the sustainable side, very difficult, very interesting area. The concept of sustainability can be, I think sometimes, I don't wanna say misconstrued, but can be sometimes, let's say, like, misinterpreted, right? So it could be completely, you know, net zero. It could be you're actually giving back to a certain extent, like, so what is the sustainability side mean to you? Yeah, I, I feel like sometimes sustainability is kind of bullshit, like you have to be careful, because, like, organic, like, it's over, it's overused now, of course, yeah, and there are so many brands that want to look sustainable. And so it was really important to me that if, if we were going to produce new products, that they were focused on being made in the US, and that's such a big part of sustainability in my mind, for example, if gel belts, they're all assembled in Montana. They're sewn in Montana. The belts that we have right now are great, but I knew with any future product I wanted, like, more clarity on the products that were being used in any or, like the recycling process of any new products, and to do as much of that in the US as we possibly could. And so, you know, if you recycle something, but it's recycled overseas, and then it's brought here, How sustainable is that? And so really, with our new product, I'm excited, because it is really, really focused on US domestic manufacturing. And so we have found a sewer who is really close to Bozeman Montana, who has sewn all of our new product for us, and has sourced every possible piece of material from the US for this new product that that he could, because I knew that's such a big part of sustainability. So the material that we're using is called Eco packs, and it's a product that I'm really proud to use. It's made from recycled water bottles. The company's based in the US, and there are like 20 water bottles made for every yard of eco pack material. And there literally isn't a facility that recycle. Hurdles, takes plastic and turns it into materials here in the US, like there isn't one. And so that was one of our biggest hurdles to get over. And so, but this eco pack material, the company, is based in the US, and then their facilities are actually, although they're not here in the US, they're powered by hydroelectric energy, so that's a really, a really good part of it. They also don't use, like, common chemicals that are used in the process of turning plastic into materials. Usually, that process uses VOCs, and their process does not and then they have really high standards for the working conditions of their facilities. So it's the best that we could do with the resources in the US, which I'm really excited about. Yeah, good, yeah. I find that in the US, we're trying, but we're just not there yet. Like, everything's kind of like we're sustainable adjacent, right? Like, it's, it's always interesting. It's been a very common every time we've had someone on the podcast that has a sustainable background, it's always like, we're, like, not as good as we want it to be, but we're kind of limited on the options. Are you taking it as far as well as, like, the packaging and shipping and all that fun stuff, like, what about once the products actually ordered? Yeah, the products are especially a new product is just going to be available through our website. It's such a tricky road. Working with Amazon. We ship all of our belts right now in, like, recycled material packaging, which is great. If you run through Amazon, you don't have full control over the packaging that is used, so it's another great reason to shop direct from source. But yeah, we ship everything in recycled material packaging, which is great. We've looked into a few Net Zero shipping options and aren't using one yet, but it's really cool that they're out there. Most of them are done through, like, carbon offsets, which is great, but that's a really cool option that we could improve on. And then I don't think I've mentioned this, but gel is a certified B Corp, and we also do 1% back for the planet. So I think it's really important to, like, pursue those certifications, because in a world where there is a lot of greenwashing, great to have those certifications, just to show that, like, Hey, we're doing the things that we can with what we have. So yeah, from a business perspective, in terms of, you know, revenue coming in all that fun stuff, is a majority coming through the website? Or is it Amazon, or is it somewhere else? Like, tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, it was about we were slightly more on the website than we were on Amazon. Recently, we decided to do a test and pull one of our, like, top selling products from Amazon, which might seem a little scary, but we really wanted to, like, encourage website purchases instead of Amazon purchases. So now our Amazon revenue is probably three quarters what our our website revenue is, but we it's been really interesting to test like paid ads through both the website and through Amazon. We run ads on both and again, we recently tested just turning off, specifically our Google ads, just to see, like, Hey, are we? Are we really investing where we should be here? And we did not see a drop in sales and cut all of our Google ads, which was so interesting. And I, um, it's just a good reminder that, like, sometimes it's good to test turning things off, even though that's a risk to see if you're spending your money in the right places. Yeah, for your Google ads, were you running performance Max? I assume were? Yeah, yeah. So chances are probably what was happening there is a majority of your branded terms, or what was triggering it, which typically means your social media is probably actually the one driving all that traffic, or at least for the brand awareness of it, yep, gotta love when that happens is, yeah. Is that your strong focus the social side? Yeah, we're pretty active on social. We have around 10,000 followers on Instagram, and are also active on Tiktok and Facebook. Our email strategy is, is great as well. We have a great return customer rate, which maybe isn't what you think from about for belts, but I think they are great gifts and people, we have some fun different styles and colors. So yeah, through our email marketing, just have a great return customer rate as well. So and from someone who, like, I spend a lot of time on social with the other brands that I work with, and it's, it's really fun to make gelt a fun outdoor brand. You know, whatever I'm doing here in Arizona, rather that's skiing or canyoneering or boating or I always make sure to have a gel on and take content, which I think in this day and age, especially on social media, people really enjoy seeing the founder or the owner of a company, and the more transparency you can give into who you are and what you're doing, and you know what your why is, I think the more you can engage with your customers. Yeah. I would agree. The so you mentioned you turned off the Google ad side. What was and obviously, I know you got social going. Are you doing any other kind of paid advertising? Yes, we've done some paid advertising on Facebook. It feels hard to run a business in this day and age without it, but we've tested fluctuations in ads as well. And it's it's always a tricky hurdle of like, how, because we were working with an agency to run our ads, and they're great, but how do you have, like, a high enough return that it's worth it to pay the agency and cover the cost of your ads and all your other costs to really make it worth it. And so we've kind of toggled back and forth. It's interesting. With sustainable brands, I think your mission sells a lot of your product, and so sometimes that's harder to porta portray through ads. Or, I don't know, we've had some success with it, but it hasn't been like, we don't have like, a 10x ROI on our ads or anything, so, yeah, and you're primarily focused on the meta side, or Tiktok side for ads, the meta side. Have you tried Tiktok yet? We haven't. Maybe we're behind the boat. We probably are tiktoks, hit or miss. At least, I feel it is, you know, a lot of people, I'm sure there's going to be a ton of people that listen to this, and they're like, What are you talking about? Blah, blah, you'll be fine. The the Tiktok side, it's, you know, it's, it's very certain types of products that do well in there, which I would actually think that your product would do pretty well. But it's the content is so very different, like, really heavily produced, like, cool looking ads can work really well on meta and Instagram, but on Tiktok, it's like, if you're not dancing using your phone to take the picture, it's probably not going to work very well. So it's, you know, it's kind of an interesting like, it's, it's really in the content, which obviously is the case for everything. But you had so you had so you mentioned about new products and stuff and that were coming down the pipeline. So what's the thought with gelt? Are you going to continue to stay in the belt range? Are you thinking of kind of scaling it out past that into other areas? Yeah, I'm happy to talk about the new product. I assume by the time this is live, the product will be live as well, but it's a cross body bag, and so it's about a liter and a half. So it's plenty of room for phone, wallet, keys, Chapstick and probably some extras. And so it's a it's also, like I said, made from the Eco pack material, still recycled material, which is great. And really the motivation behind it was just to test if, because we have such a loyal customer base, there are, I feel like so many, so many people that are loyal to the jelt brand, which is really great. Can we test other products that are made from recycled materials? You know, if someone's going to be buying other products in their life, would they be excited to purchase that product from jell and to really just test that out, and also from just like a business perspective, like our belts retail from 34 to $38 and so it's a test of, can we get? Can we increase our average order value? And the bags are like I said. They're all sewn in Montana. They're really well done. They're going to retail for around $85 so it's a test of, can we get our increase our average order value? Because a lot of the things, a lot of the ads, are hard to justify with a low average order value. And so yeah, I think we'll have some more flexibility there, if our average order value increases, and then we'll go, we'll go from there. The sewer that we work with is really wonderful, very talented. We've talked about all kinds of different bags and other products, but want to see how this first launch goes before diving into other things. And it's, it's another reason why, like Made in America, is so important is because we can test these things and we can tweak them really easily. When our production is done in Montana, I, you know, can literally sit down with our sewer, his name is Rocky from steadfast systems, and be like, I think I want these zipper pulls to be a different size, and I want there to be three interior pockets instead of two. And you can do that within, like a week. And so it just really makes a difference in terms of, like, testing and making a really good product when you have the flexibility to do that here. So yeah, oh yeah. I mean, the best marketing is just a really quality product. I always say that, like, marketing, in my eyes, is actually very easy if you have a quality product, because then it's just a matter of, like, educating people and be like, hey, this exists. And then if there's like, wow, this thing's awesome, it kind of just takes off on its own. So it makes life that much more easier. So that that strong focus in putting together a quality product is great to hear, because that'll make your life significantly easier as time goes on. Yeah. I. Changes the marketing strategy from like, Hey, this is why you should buy this, to just awareness, like, if you're aware of this, exactly, enjoy it and want to have it. And the bag is, I mean, the people that are wearing drought belts there, there are people who like to be outside, like to adventure. And I've taken this on, taking the new cross body bag on a ton of outdoor adventures, and it's great to have. I even put like a little tiny water bladder in it, so I have, like, some water with me on a hike. So I think the people that are that are our jelt audience, will really enjoy the bag. Yeah, very cool. Super excited to see it come out. Amy, thank you so much for being on the show. I don't want to take up too much of your time. I know you're super busy. I'd love to give the opportunity let everyone know they can find out more about you. And, of course, more about jelt, sure. Yeah, you can learn about jetbelt.com all of our handles across social media are also just jeltbelt. And then my name is Amy Auble. You can find me on Instagram, I'm sure, linked in the show notes. So beautiful. Amy. Thank you so much everyone who tuned in, of course, thank you as well. Please make sure you do the usual, rate, review, subscribe all that fun stuff on whichever podcast platform you prefer, or head over theecommshow.com to check out all of our previous episodes. But as usual, thank you all for joining us, and we will see you all next time.

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